Time running out for Haiku Stairs

There really is nothing quite like Haiku Stairs. If it is to be saved, there really should be a private entity willing to save it, rather than leaving it to the taxpayer to assume the liability and the maintenance costs.

The very last opportunity for that rescue has arrived, with the agency currently responsible for it, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, beginning an environmental study that will lay out all the options for its future.

What’s also known as “Stairway to Heaven” comprises about 4,000 steps that ascend the sheer walls of the Koolau Mountains, rimming Windward Oahu’s Haiku Valley. The original installation dates back 75 years, when it was a wooden stairway that enabled a technological feat that was amazing for its time.

The reason for the stairs’ construction, however, wasn’t the creation of a recreational resource that affords spectacular views. It was to support the maintenance of the valley-spanning antenna system.

Originally built by the Navy for radio communications transmissions, the U.S. Coast Guard converted it into a link in a navigation network, according to the initial filing for the environmental study. The associated Omega Station structure sat on the valley floor beneath the antenna spans.

Omega terminated operations in 1991. Officially, the stairs have been closed since 1987. But they swiftly became sought-after by hikers, especially when the city spent just under $1 million to repair them in 2005.

Social media and websites spread the word to visitors, and soon a stream of people started trekking across land near the back of the valley to get to the trailhead.

And it’s that trek, coupled with liability concerns, that causes the real problem. The stairs were shut down and guarded to keep people off them, so determined climbers would cut through properties very early in the morning, to elude the security detail and reach the stairs.

The water board, quite reasonably, would like to cross the stairs off its list of responsibilities, and this means either finding someone else to manage the stairway or deconstruct it so it would no longer be. Officials have said its fate is not predetermined, but clearly they want it settled.

The process to do that, now underway, is an environmental impact statement to be drafted over the next year. Public comments on the options are being sought, and are due to the Office of Environmental Quality Control by May 23 (email, haikustairs@G70.design; mailing address, Group 70 International, 925 Bethel St., Fifth Floor, Honolulu, HI 96813.).

According to the preparation notice for the environmental study, the board’s options include: no action; continued board ownership of the land with provision of legal access; and the partial or complete transference of the land and stairs to a public or private entity.

The water board has explored options to remove the structure or transfer ownership since 2015. Officials have favored transferral to a government entity, but laid out in the EIS preparation notice the option of a private owner.

The condition may prove daunting for most interested parties, however: “Prior to any conveyance, the provision of legal access would still have to be approved,” according to the document. The full set of required permits, even after any property transfer, would take about another five years.

This certainly raises the bar for Friends of Haiku Stairs, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocating for preservation, which does offer various ways donors can raise money for the maintenance of the property. But what needs to happen now is to find a donor willing to shoulder all of the managerial duties, including how access can be provided across property lines.

Otherwise, it may be time to let the stairway go. It’s a remarkable structure, but not one to remain as a public liability.